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AN OPEN LETTER TO MIKE HONDA

I thought you’d like an update on my research. I’m back in Quezon City, Philippines continuing to document the stories of surviving Filipina “Comfort Women” of World War II.

Back in 1999, when I first met the women of LILA Pilipina, there were about forty survivors in an active campaign to regain their dignity from the crimes committed against them by the Japanese Imperial Army during WW2.

Organizers of LILA Pilipina – some of whom you have met – would gather with women in Quezon City, Novotas and Antipolo and together they would strategize and plan their campaign. I remember first walking into the houses of surviving lolas – so many of them sitting in chairs around the sala, waiting for the meeting to begin. As they waited they chatted with one another, or they sang songs to one another or they’d put on a cassette tape and dance with each other as they waited for everyone to arrive. Sometimes there were twenty to thirty lolas at those meetings and so loud were they, that if you did not know any better, you might think you were walking in on a fiesta of old women.

But soon, the meetings would begin and the lolas would grow serious, and these same women would soon be on the streets, rallying and protesting in front of the Japanese embassy or lined up along the roads waving banners and flags at the current visiting Japanese Prime Minister. These same women would fly to Japan to share their testimonies with many Japanese citizens eager to hear their stories.

Eight years later, and the women are half the number they were before. Most of them are in their mid to late eighties and very fragile. In this first week back, I have met with about twenty surviving “Comfort Women.” I have traveled with Rechilda Extremadura, LILA Pilipina’s director back to Quezon City, to Navotas and to Antipolo where Ms. Extremadura has been sharing your work and success with House Resolution 121 with them. The lolas know you very well. I have played the news clips and other short documentaries that 121 Coalition has produced on my laptop. We have translated the resolution for the women and they are eager for the bill to come to the House floor for a full vote.

It saddens me to know so many of these fighting lolas have passed on without seeing the great effects of their fight, that some may still die without hearing a formal apology from Japan. In speaking with them, some have shared their responses to Shinzo Abe’s current remarks. They want to know why he thinks telling the President of the United States he feels sorry for the women is the same thing as speaking directly to them and telling them he is sorry his government condoned the systematic rape and enslavement of their lives? Shouldn’t he be directing his conversation to them?

Speaking their stories has allowed them to unburden their hearts, fighting for what’s right has relieved them of the shame they have felt for so many years, but their hearts are still broken over the brutal abuse they have suffered then as military sex slaves, and now as human beings asking to be recognized and treated with respect and dignity. So many I speak with are concerned that to ignore this opportunity to address the past is to condone the behavior and to make room for it to happen again.

The lolas of LILA Pilipina are well aware of the many supporters and friends they have gained in the United States through the life of House Resolution 121. They understand that many of our “Kongristas” have co-sponsored the bill and their hearts are full knowing that no matter what happens their stories will remain alive in the work you and so many others are doing.

I write to applaud your campaign and the work of your colleagues. It is my hope that House Resolution 121 passes without hesitation for the need to reconcile, heal and forgive, the need to learn from the mistakes of war and to transcend the past can only be attained when we are willing to review our history and take responsibility for our actions.

Sincerely,

M. Evelina GalangAssistant Professor, EnglishUniversity of Miami

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Maria Rosa Henson, or Lola Rosa, was the first Filipina Comfort Woman of WWII to come forward publicly on September 12, 1992. Because of Lola Rosa, many other Filipinas who had been living with this secret for over 50 years found the courage to come forward and finally speak their truth, finally ask for their apology, finally free themselves from the stories.

Here is an excerpt from her book, COMFORT WOMAN: Slave of Destiny (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1996). This passage occurs in 1943. She's 16 years old and she has just been abducted and placed into a garrison, a former town hospital close to Magalang, Pampanga near Manila.

Without warning, a Japanese soldier entered my room and pointed his bayonet at my chest. I thought he was going to kill me, but he used his bayonet to slash my dress and tear it open. I was too frightened to scream. And then he raped me. When he was done, other soldiers came into my room and they took turns raping me.

The sun streams in through the wall-sized window, casting afternoon light on our family room. Outside the trees sway vibrant and green, shade a small figure of Mama Mary. She welcomes me too with arms stretched and hands waiting. Inside, noise percolates from every room of the house. I am home. From my suitcase I pull a salmon colored tapestry. When you first glance at it, the greens, blues and reds flash a beautiful montage of color. The folds unwind and reveal the fine embroidery.

I’m telling my mother and sister-in-law that when Lola Remedios learned I was coming, she began working on this piece as gift to me. It took her all six months to get this far in the tapestry. Every piece – every letter and image has been cut from other fabrics and painstakingly hand-sewn into the cloth. Except for the missing D where she has sewn, “(D)ecember 20, 1942, Dito Ako Nahuli Sa Lugar ng Baryo Esperanza,” it’s all there – the Dagitan River, green…

Lola Precsilla Bartonico was born on January 6, 1926 on the island of Leyte, Philippines. Here is an excerpt from Lola Prescilla’s testimony to the Japanese government:

One day in the late months of 1943 when I was about 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers captured us as we were hiding in one of the air raid shelters. We were only two women in that group who were all my relatives. They started raping my cousin while the other soldiers tied up the men. I was about 17 years old then. Then they tied me and one soldier raped me. I wanted to resist but I was too afraid to for fear of getting killed. After, they brought us to the town of Burauen and I was brought to the elementary school which they converted into garrison. We arrive in there late afternoon. I saw around 15 women who were also raped like what they did to me. After that, I was brought to the Home Economics Building and saw two women inside.

Then my suffering started at the hands of the Japanese soldiers. We were bein…